130 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept, 10, 1885. 



Pkesera'^ing Fish Lines.— Houston, Tex., Aug. 16.— 

 Efiitor Forest and Stream: I noticed in your paper of July 

 16, au axticle from "Petra,"' giving a method for preserving 

 fishing lines, to wit, the application of, as he terms it, Miner's 

 Oil Company's finishing oil. What I want to know is what 

 that means; what kind of an oil it is, or where could it be 

 obtained '/ I would like to fiml something that will preserve 

 a line or net in our waters here, and especially the waters of 

 the Trinity River, as I have yet to find anything that will 

 keep linos from rottiug io this .stream more than a month, 

 let alone a year, except coal tar. That will do it, but it is 

 miserable stuff to handle, and takes so long to dry— six 

 months will not dry a line so it will not muss up the hands 

 as soon as p"t into the water; but then, if well saturated 

 with it, the line will last two years in the water all the time. 

 T have used pine tar, or pitch 'tar, linseed oil, etc., but thej^ 

 will not preserve a line a month in that stream, The water 

 of Trinity River is alkaline to such an extent that it just eats 

 up tackle like nitric acid.— C. L. J. [The Miner's Oil Co. 

 are at 43 Front street, New York.] 



Strtped Bass. — Buzzard's Bay, Cape Cod, Mass., Sept. 

 7. — Editor Forest and Stream: One of your correspondents 

 complains of the absence of salt-water fishing items. Here 

 is one: The cool, beautiful days of autumn have brought 

 striped bass here, and with rod, large reel, 150 yards Cutty- 

 hunk line and "hook, bass weighing from 3 to 15 pounds 

 each are now caught very frequently. The largest striped 

 bass caught here this season weighed '6Sh pounds. With 

 the same tnciile bluelish arc often caught weighing from 3 

 to I'J pounds, and when a 10-pounder is hooked, with 100 

 yards of line out in the swift running tide, it is the most 

 exciting sport imaginable, and to bring the fish to shore 

 requires both skill and strength. No boats are required, as 

 you fish from off the railway bridge, which is 300 yards 

 from Parker's Hotel. Fare from "New York city to this 

 place, via Fall River steamboats, $3.90. Here, among the 

 good, kind people of Cape Cod, here, breathing the pure, 

 health3% bracing air, witli the cver-changintc views of Buz- 

 zard's Bay spread before your eyes, is liappiness, with now 

 and then a good fish thrown in. — WrLiiOUGHBY. 



Tn Cajidp at a Uorrblk Place.— Gardner, Mass., Sept. 

 5-— The Monomouock Sporting Club, of this town, went 

 into camp at Lake Monomouock, Rindge, N. H,, to-day. 

 Near where Nanequahunkopoj)oppequashanticut Brook iiows 

 into the lake the camp is located. Messrs. Q. R. Pratt 

 and 8. Leone Walker are the caterers. The party includes 

 Aaron Greenwood, J. D. Edgell, G. F. Ellsworth, L. W. 

 Brown. Thomas Greenwood, George Nichols, C. F. Read, 

 T. P. Perley, G. H. Newton, F. M. Greenwood, Ambrose 

 Stevens, A. Warren, L. A. Wright, Frank Pierce, Amos 

 Coleman, Leslie Bent and Edni" Coleman, of Gardner, and 

 Frank Nichols and Thomas Sheldon, of Fitchburg. 



Large Black Bass. — A black bass weighing 4 pounds 

 and 10 ounces was taken on Aug. 14 in No. 10 Pond, Calais, 

 Vt., by Mr. C. G. Levison, of Brooklyn. N. Y., inventor of 

 the "Levison" patent fiy-book. He used a .split bamboo rod 

 weighing 7 ounces. Three days later the same gentleman 

 took another black bass which weighed 5 pounds and 12 

 ounces, using a split bamhoo rod of nine ounces. Mr. Levi- 

 son has the reputation of having killed more large fish during 

 the paiit five or six years than any man in Washington 

 county, Vermont, and* that some of his fish in former years 

 brought down the scales to 5i pounds. 



The Miscarrieb Butt-c.\p.— Casselton, Dak., Sept. 3,— 

 Editor Forest and ^tratm: llave just received a letter from 

 the "Chicago and New York liouse," of which 1 spoke in 

 your issue of the 27th ult , in which they inform me that 

 they "exchanged the butt-cap June 34, and replied to mine 

 of July (5 upon July 9." As neither the buti-cap nor the 

 reply came lo hand, the fault must be shifted from the firm's 

 shuukier* to those of Uncle Sam. Will you please give this 

 space, that no injustice may be done to the aforesaid firm? — 

 H. P. Ufford. 



•'Kingfisher" has just returned from "the annual fish." 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



FERTIL[TY IN HYBRIDIZATION. 



BY HON. ROBERT BARmVELL ROOSEVELT. 



f From the Proceeding-! of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, Vol. XXSIII., Philadelphia Meetlne, September, 

 1B84.J 



BEFORE entering into the gist of the matter implied by the 

 title of this paper it may be wise to determine the true 

 meaning of the word "hybridization." "Rare old Ben" Jon- 

 son remarks of a young lady in one of his plays that, "she's 

 wild Irish born, sir, and a hybride." Now if that is to be the 

 acceptation of the word "hybrid" the end of this ai-ticle is 

 reached betoi'e it is fairly commenced, for that f ei-tility exists 

 among the "wild Irish," and to no small degree, no one doubts 

 who has seen the "beautiful plenty" of children in and aroimd 

 the cabins of "old Ireland." Indeed, under that construction, 

 our entire American nation might be caUed a race of hybrids, 

 for are we not the intermixture of representatives of the sons 

 aoid daughters of the entire earth, whether born on the green 

 sod of the "Gem of the Sea" or under the tropical sun of 

 Africa, the "what is its," of Central America or the moon- 

 eyed foUowers of Confucius? Fortunately, however, we 

 discover a charming diversity of opinion herein as 

 with the case of more than one other scientific 

 problem and find a doubt and disagreement as to the very 

 meaning and derivation of the term hybrid. By some learned 

 authorities it is derived from ''/j-t/ftrtc^a," Latin for monstros- 

 ity, an outrage upon or insult to nature, order, proi^riety and 

 beauty. But othei' equally scientific writers assure us that 

 the word is derived from the Greek, which means superior, 

 above, improved. It is unnecessary to observe how well that 

 definition would apply to the American nation and even "rat e 

 old Ben" may have had this interpretation in view when he 

 pruited that line as he speUed the word with an "e," making 

 his wild Iriih girl a "high bride." Something of this superior 

 ity I hope may be found in the creatures to which I am' about 

 to refer, although they will at the same time come under the 

 more common definition of mongrel or cross between different 

 races or families. The term race or family is not used in a 

 purely accurate scientific sense, for hybridization even with 

 plants has been limited to s])ecies nearly allied. With them 

 specifical hybridism may be said not to be imusual even 

 in a state of natiue, bub with livtag creatures it is mostly 

 if not entirely forced, or brought about throiigti the in- 

 terference of man. The union of the wild bore witn 

 the domestic sow and of the wolf and the dog, which 

 are more or less natural are not hybridization in the true 



sense of the word as the species which have thus united are 

 admitted to be identical in their oiigtn and only modified by 

 domestication. The case of the lion with the tigress is too 

 rare to be considered, and among animals we are brought prac- 

 ticaUy bo that of the horse and the jackass which produces 

 our common and useful mule. That the mule is the superiM- 

 of its progenitors on both sides will hardly be admitted, but 

 both the mule and the janebtewith a f ew rare fixceptions have 

 proved themselves sterile. The law of nature throughout all 

 ten-estrial life seems to be that no mongrel should procreate, 

 no hybrid create a new race or .species, but that hke the f au-- 

 ie.s when they died they were to die out of existence leaving no 

 heirs to their fame or name. This rule holds as to the mam- 

 malia without au exception, and it is only when we come to 

 another and perhaps inferior order of Ufe that we have lately 

 found modifications of it. 



When fishculture grew from mere individual and occasional 

 effort into a science and system, one of tho possibilities 

 which suggested itself to ingenious minds was the 

 crossing of dilferent species. As the entire operation 

 of producing fertility was artificial, there was no 

 sexual repugnance against uitercourse to be over- 

 come, the eggs of any species of female being .stripped 

 from her could be fertilized by the mUt from the male of any 

 other species. That is, the spermatozoal embryos could be 

 bi-ought into contact whether fert-ility followed or not, which 

 at fir? t was doubtf id. The crosses made in this way under the 

 New York State Fishery Commission have been very numer- 

 ous and in some instances cjiute tmnatural, and the restdts 

 have proved equally surprising and unexpected. The flrs-t 

 cross was that of the California salmon {Sulmo quinnat) and 

 the brook trout (Salmo fon tinalis). This was ia the year 1876, 

 and the species being so closely allied fertility of the eggs and 

 vitality of the young could almost be predicted with cer- 

 tainty. Then came the cross of the salmon or lake trout 

 (Salino confinis) with the brook trout, then the Cahfornia 

 trout, the Salmo indea and the brook trout, and thereafter 

 the enbu-e range of the salmon and trout families, as far as 

 they were within the reach of the operators, were combined 

 in many and curious proportions. Outside of that, even 

 more remarkable attempts were made, such as the 

 union of the striped bass and shad, which came about 

 by accident, utilized by intelhgence. A ripe female striped 

 bass or rockfish (Lahrax lineatus) being caught iu the nets 

 during tho coiu-se of the operations of the shad hatchery on 

 the Hudson River, and there being no male bass to be ob- 

 tained, the eggs were taken and brought into contact with the 

 milt of the male shad {Alosa sapid issim,a). Then these eggs 

 were placed in a box entirely by themselves, and every pre- 

 caution was taken to make the experiment perfect. The eggs 

 hatched, of that there is no question, but whether the pro- 

 duct was the result from that impregnation, or whether it was 

 reached by the chance contact with floating seminal animal- 

 cules froni bass, or whether the young lived after they were 

 hatched, may be regarded as still open for consideration. As 

 there was no possibility of keeping the fry in confinement, the 

 experiment goes no further than opening the field of study 

 and research. 



Fish do not attain sexual maturity as soon as is generally 

 supposed, and in confuiement it is probable that this 

 period is even more prolonged. The earliest hybrids to 

 matm-e their ova were the cross between the niiale Cali- 

 fornia salmon and the female brook trout. This took 

 place in the year 1870. lliey not only became gravid but 

 ascended the spawning races as naturally as those of 

 either distinct species and evidently with the intention of pro- 

 creating. But as they deposited no eggs and did not appear 

 to mate, an examination of them was made and it was ascer- 

 taiued that they were all of one sex, the entire family being 

 females. To remedy this a number of male spawning brook 

 trout were admitted to the same race-way ; these promptly 

 paired with the half-breed lady fish, selecting their wives as 

 readily as they would from their own species, but although 

 they made all the preliminary preparations, no results ap- 

 peared from theu- union. The nests had been constructed but 

 no eggs had bee n deposited in them. A further examination 

 proved that the eggs were too large to pass the ovaiian open- 

 ing. When they were extnided by force, as in the stripping 

 process, the shells were crushed and a few which were ob- 

 tained by the use of tho knife, a sort of modified Cassarean 

 operation, and were brought into contact with the milt of the 

 trout, faded to impregnate and perished. This experiment 

 led to the conclusion that where the male was much the larger 

 fish, the ova might be too large for extrusion, and also that 

 possibly under certain contingencies all of one hatching might 

 be of a single sex. In all subsequent operations, however, the 

 proportion of each sex has been about equal. Some of these 

 females of the first batch of hybrids which never matm-ed 

 eggs, although they had not the honor of parentage, are still 

 Hving, grizzled and jcaunt like the proverbial old maids of the 

 jocose story-writers, but they have never repeated the attempt 

 to pei'petuate their species, one abortive effort in that du-ec- 

 tion seeming to exhaust their aspirations for maternity. 



The cross of the male brook trout and the female salmon 

 ti'out, tlxe Salmo fontinalis with the Salmo confinis, matm-ed 

 ova in October, 1880. There were about 72,000 eggs cast which 

 hatched as readily as those of either parent, although it was 

 found that a larger percentage of them could beim^jregnated 

 with the milt of the male brook trout than with the milt of 

 their own kind. The percentage of fertility was good, and the 

 young proved to be perfectly healthy and as able to stand the 

 struggle for existence as any of their brethren of pure strain. 

 Upon this discovery rested the possibihty of a great future for 

 fishculture. There are qualities iu each of these species 

 which it was exceedingly desirable to combine. The Salmo 

 confinis grows to a far greater size than the Salmo fontinalis; 

 they £ire hardier, easier to hatch and handle, and more 

 able to take care of themselves, while the brook trout are 

 the more delicate in flavor, the more admii-able as a sporting 

 fish a,nd will take the fly in fly-fishing, which is the crowning 

 virtue in a fish from the angler's point of view. In the hope 

 of reaching such a result this process of interbreeding has been 

 kept up regularly from its inception. At the first cross one- 

 half of the salmon trout was eliminated, their young impreg- 

 nated with the milt of the male brooic trout left only a (quar- 

 ter of the coarser parent, and then came those which were 

 seven-eighths brook trout to one-eighth salmon trout, which 

 is as far as we have got at the present time. The young of 

 each of these generations show the effects of the cross, just as 

 we have witnessed the occasional iDleaching out process in this 

 cormtry between the children of Africa and those of colder 

 chmates. The fli-st in descent had none of the carmine specks 

 which are the distinguishing feature of the "speckled trout" 

 of our brooks. In the second generation the spots began to 

 appear, and m the last they are distinctly visible, although 

 fewer in number than in the trout of Sangre Azid. Of 

 their habits and qualities other than their growth and theu- 

 flavor on the table we have had as yet no opportunity t^ 

 judge. Those of the first cross have been eaten on several 

 occasions by epicm-ean judges and Avere pronounced excel- 

 lent, fully up to the reputation of either of the parents. In 

 the year 1883 there were distributed to the brooks of the State 

 45,300 hybrid fry which were one-half salmon trout and one- 

 half brook trout, a.nd in 1884 a second planting of TD.OUO three- 

 quarter brook trout was made. Ntdther of these has been in 

 the streams long enough to determine how they will act nor 

 how they will get on when left to shift for themselves. They 

 may go back like the fancy pigeons to theii- original Ijreed or 

 they may remain permanent oi' even branch out into infinite 

 modifications. The fact remains that in this artificial way a 

 new breed has been established, whether it is designated as a 

 new species or not, which can be maintained by manual per- 

 petuation forever, and another conclusion is proved that hy- 

 bridism is not necessarily another word for sterihty. 



That the young will spawn naturally is probable, if not 

 certain, m view of their procreative instincts when in confine- 

 ment, and that they will live and grow is fully ascertained. 

 They are in no wise like the monstrosities with" two heads or 

 two bodies which occasionally appear and that die as soon as 

 they reach the feeding age after the umbihcal sac is absorbed. 

 The fij-st, which were deposited in wild waters, were found in 

 six months to have attained a growth of four and a half inches 

 in length, equal to the growth of a brook trout in the same 

 water for an entire year. These operations have been con- 

 ducted on a sulHciently extensive scale to justify the deduc- 

 tion of some quite p(^sitive conclusions and have been 

 attempted with several quite incongruous species. The first 

 cross as we have seen was that of the Salmo quinnat with the 

 Sahno fontinalis: the second, the Salmo fontinalis Aud fho, 

 Salmo confinis, then the salmon trout, Salmo confinis, was 

 bred with the whiteflsh, the Coregonus albus, the brook ti-oufc 

 with the fresh-water herring, Sabno clupeiformis, the brook 

 trout and the CaUfomia trout, Sahno iridea, the shad, Alosa 

 sapidiss-ima, with the the striped bass, Labrax lineatus, and 

 the shad with the salt-water herring. There are at pres- 

 sent at the New York hatchery 10,000 breeding hvbrid fish of 

 the various modifications and during the year 1883-4 himdreds 

 of thousands of fry were hatched. The cross of the shad with 

 the salt-water herring appears to have lived, as the fishermen 

 have taken them so frequently as to designate them as "Seth 

 Green's shad;" it is possible, however, that, they are all 

 males, as those w^hich have been examined " seem to 

 be so. Whfie mentioning the name of the putative father 

 of the "herrtng-shjid," I cannot withhold the well de- 

 served meed of praise to Mr. Seth Green and his brother, 

 Monroe A. Green, for the intelligent and earnest interest they 

 have taken in these experiments. 



In these operations we have not only made interesting dis- 

 coveries which promise benefit to the consumers and catchers 

 ot fish, but we have reserved for the world of science, that I 

 have seen so fully represented at this meeting of the Associ- 

 ation, a pleasure which of all othei-s they most enjoy, the op- 

 portunity of inventing long, leai ned and distinguis'hing names 

 tor the product of our efforts. It will be their special duty to 

 tell the world just how the mixed-up babies should be 

 termed, whether the young of the brook tr<Dut unto the 

 third and the fourth generation is to be the Sulmo con- 

 fiMis fontinalis or Sulmo fontinalis confinis, and whether 

 the/onimaWsis to be dupMcated like treble x ale in the suc- 

 ceeding generations, and how they will distinguish sucU an 

 "odd fish" as that of the intermingling of the Alosa sapidts- 

 sima one of the Malcropterygii or soft-finned fishes witi the 

 Labrax lineatus, a prominent member of the Acanthoptct-ygii 

 or spine-finned fishes. As the ti'out has married the salmon 

 and the shad has imited its fate with the herring and the 

 whitefish has taken in unholy, because artificial, wedlock the 

 brook trout, it would seern to be impossible lo determine 

 where the limits of hybridism iu fishculture may yet be found. 



Salem. 1885. 



MISSOXJRL — A car manufactured and fitted up for the 

 Fish Commission of Missouri arrived the other day from 

 Litchfield, IU. It will not, however, be complete until a 

 further appropriation by the Legislature doubles the number 

 of fish boxes it contains at present. 



POT LUCK FROM EXCHANGES. 



This is the season in which the English spa/Tow masquerades 

 on the bUl of fare as a reed hird.—Baltiinore American. 



When a miner has been eaten by a grizzly, the Western 

 people speak of him as being admitted to the b'ar,— Fowfcers 

 Gazette. 



Every close observer knows that fishing stimulates the tm- 

 aeinalion to such an extent that thought is an im possibihty, — 

 Memphis {Tenn.) Avalanche. 



A number of granite rocks have been found by Indians on 

 the Snake River, Oregon, which contain impressions of deer 

 and bear feet, and one of which has a very distinct human 

 footprint. — San Francisco Call. 



The Hon. Wfiliam H. Harper repoi ts that fishing in the 

 Superior region is not as good this faU. as usual, "I have been 

 here a week," he writes, "and have drawn only one good 

 hand in all that time."— CTiicat^o News. 



A Berlin paper contained an advertisement the other day 

 promising 30 marks "to him who the person who cub off his 

 dog's taU, which was not at all fiei'ce, will point out, so that he 

 can convict him before cowt.''^— Evening Post. 



BiU Moore, a pioneer, tells the Silver State that the ducks 

 are so numerous at the Sink of the Humboldt this season that 

 they have to take turns in going on the lake, and old drakes 

 stationed along the shore see that all have a fair show iu get- 

 ting to the water. — San Francisco Call. 



We have some of the laziest negroes in the world right here 

 in Palatka, and in summer they five on catfish and melons. 

 We saw one of those lazy creatures the other day. He had 

 his fishing line tied to his dog's hind leg, and when a fish would 

 bite he would give his dog a kick, — Palatka Herald. 



The Columbus Enquirer wants to exterminate worthless 

 dogs in Georgia. If our brother will talk with Col. Tom 

 Howard for about 10 minutes he wdl learn that many thousand 

 pine woods Georgiaas prefer one mangy dog to a flock of 

 sheep and ii woolen factory. — Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. 



Last Wednesday C. W. Sanders, of Kershaw county, shot a 

 carrier pigeon on whose right wing was printed in piuple ink 

 by a rubber stamp the foUowing inscription: "2,012— if caught 

 or shot, please report this number to 'Star,' 78 Cortland street, 

 N. Y." On another feathei- "4." On the inside of the wing 

 t he word "Pensacola." Mr. Sanders i-eports that tlie pigeon, 

 when shot, was flying behind some doves. — Charleston (S. C.) 

 News, SejJt. 4 



One day last week a son of Benson J. Lossing, the lustorian, 

 was riding on a mo^^nng machine on his father's farm. In the 

 left pocket of his overshirt was a hickory stick aboub four 

 inches in length, three inches wide and au inch thick. As he 

 was riding along a rifle bafi shot by some one stiaick the stick 

 and imbedded itself in it. The boy does not know from which 

 direction the ball came nor who shot it. If the stick had not 

 been in his pocket he would have been instantly kiUed. As it 

 was he was not injured at all.—Poughkeepsie Eagle. 



Mr. W. B. Robinson, a lumberman of Sionemahoiung, who 

 is a guest at the City Hotel, says that Mrs. Mary Ann Jordan, 

 who resides on the East Pork of the Sinnsmahoning, in Potter 

 coimty, omis a tame deer, which leaves her every winter and 

 goes oS into the woods, returning in the spring. This spring 

 it returned bringing with it another deer, and both now 

 roam around iu the barnyard. The pet deer wears a bell 

 hanging from its neck, and thereby escapes the gtms of the 

 hunters during its wanderings. Sometimes dogs chase it, and 

 then it makes a dash straight for Mrs. Jordan's house, rushes 

 in and jumps upon a bed, evidently deeming that a safe place. 

 — Williamsport (Pa.) Gazette. 



One of the instances of the Imperial meeting was a grand 

 himt at Kremsier. The Czar and the Emperor of Austria are 

 both represented to be "splendid shots," and how these expert 

 sportsmen exhibited their skill appeai-s in the narration of a 

 correspondent. Two hundred and fifty tame stags and roe 

 deer were driven into an inclosiue, whore they were im- 

 prisoned by means of a netfence, whilethe Imperial Mmrods, 

 assisted by nine sharpshooters, selected from their suites, 

 banged away at the poor pent up animals. It is much as If 

 our own Hayes should organize a prairie chicken shooting 

 party and then arm his friends with clubs for an indiscrimin- 

 ate assault on his hen houses.— Yeti? Yor'k World. 



